Margaret C. MacDonald

Major Margaret Clothilde MacDonald, (26 February 1873 – 7 September 1948) was a Canadian military nurse. She is well known for being one of the first women to hold a position in the completely male-dominated military of her time. She is also known for her breakthrough role as a military nurse during the First World War. During this time, she was given the title of Matron-in-Chief of the Canadian Army Medical Corps Nursing Service. MacDonald was the first woman promoted to the rank of major in the British Empire and was awarded the Royal Red Cross (1916) and the Florence Nightingale Medal (1918).
MacDonald was born in Bailey Brook, Nova Scotia, on 26 February 1873. She was born into a wealthy, Catholic family. Her father was Donald St. Daniel MacDonald and her mother was Mary Elizabeth Chisholm. MacDonald was the third of eleven children and was presented with a plethora of opportunities due to her family’s wealth. She had the opportunity to receive an education from an early age, which was atypical for girls of that time. MacDonald grew to appreciate education from this upbringing and continued her educational journey with her sisters at Mount St. Vincent Academy, a convent school where she was taught by the Sisters of Charity. Around this time, MacDonald became interested in nursing and, against her parents’ wishes, went on to study nursing at Charity Hospital Training School in New York.
After her graduation in 1895, MacDonald went to Panama to assist as a nurse during the construction of the Panama Canal. After this, she began her first nursing job as a military nurse, where she was one of the first women to play a role in the war. Her first job was aboard the military ship, Relief, during the Spanish-American War in 1898, where she took care of American soldiers, both the wounded and the sick. MacDonald also served as a nurse during the Second Boer War in 1900, where she was one of the first women to receive a military commission. After this, MacDonald returned Canada and was soon named the head of the Nursing Service of the Canadian Army Medical Corps. She then moved to Britain to learn from their military nursing program, which was well known at the time. At this point, MacDonald focused more on leadership and working to make a change for women. Also during this time, MacDonald was the first woman promoted to the rank of major in the British Empire for her leadership during the First World War.
In 1920, after many years of nursing, MacDonald retired, returning to her hometown of Bailey’s Brook, Nova Scotia. She died in Nova Scotia on 7 September 1948, at the age of 75.